this stove has served us well over the last 6 years or so only down side is its like stoking the titanic on start up . it certainly weighs more than 180kg as it says above.
Had stove for a few years now and was happy enough with performance until recently...stove is now drawing a lot of air even when fully closed off.I have checked door seals damper flap etc and
all seems fine.There is an alarmingly low amount of help online to tackle such issues and a frequent and competent internet user should start a forum. Any help would be fantastic as users know this is a large thirsty stove that is consuming even more fuel than ever.
Stove expert replied:
Test the door / doors are sealing by shutting a piece of paper between the body of the stove and the door, if you can pull it out then the rope may need replacing and or the door adjusting to rectify this. Check the glass gaskets as they need replacing at times. The internal parts should be checked to insure they are not warped. If all of these do not produce a problem then check the flue system etc, you can always go back to the installer for further support.
I love the TF90. It heats 14 radiators in my house with no problem. its gives off a very powerful heat in the room that it is in. I am very happy with it. My only problem would be keeping the
glass clean. I clean it regularly and would like some tips on this as it is supposed to be self cleaning glass?
Stove expert replied:
The glass will blacken if you reduce the airwash above the door too much (normally for overnight burning) or are burning wet fuel, wood with a moisture content in excess of 20%. The discolouration, if caused by too little air, should burn off when you open the air controls fully and give the stove a short period of fast burn (recommended twice a day for approx 15mins but no more than 20mins that is if the stove is being used 24/7). A damp cloth dipped in wood ash or vinegar should remove any stubborn satins.
We installed this stove in a 15th century manor house in France. The house was somewhat draughty but the wood burner has been doing an excellent job for the past five years giving us plenty
of hot water too. We tend to burn it in the evenings and with a good log it will burn continuously throughout the night keeping our large living room warm for the winter mornings.
Stove expert replied:
Burning wood overnight on a slow rate is not recommended as it can cause problems in the flue system, insure that regular fast rates of burn are undertaken to maintain the condition of the flue and do have it swept 2 - 3 times a year.
We have one of these boilers but haven't installed it yet. I see thermal stores mentioned in a couple of the reviews. Is this something that you have to have with this boiler? We have used tirolia
cookers in the past and I seem to remember that it was a very simple system with just a pump. I am getting woried that the cost of installing this boiler might grow arms and legs!
Stove expert replied:
This stove can be installed with an open vented system and a normal domestic hot water cylinder. It can be linked to a thermal store for a more complex system if required. Tke further advice on this is required.
Bought this, as recommended would be best option to heat a 500l thermal store. We seem unable to get the thermal store up to temp, without the use of oil fired backup. Does anyone suggest
an additional pump may be advantageous. In an ideal world, it would be good to heat around 21 rads, over 3 floors, but are comfortable with just heating 9 over these floors. Having the fire keeping in overnight, and keeping lit all day, the max temp in room at 22 degrees - unfortunately, is a very large room and sitting with jumpers on seems a shame and the water never gets above 40 degrees.Currently using logs, as have an endless supply,System has oil boiler and oil fired rayburn (which is constantly on tick over) and is a gravity fed system.Could it be the distance of the thermal store is too far away from the stove being approx 9 metres awayfrom store.The water is hot in the pipes near the stove - therefore, could we be in danger of warping the stove as the heat doesn't seem to be getting to the thermal store.Also, the glass has never been clean, and requires constant cleaningAny advice would be appreciated - as heating a large cold house is painful. - thanks again.
Stove expert replied:
Yes I do feel the long run to the heat store is a problem, if gravity then it should not exceed 6mtrs max and be rising all the way, also pipe size important to get the heat away from the stove. What temperature have you got the thermostat set on? If the water is not able to get away then the stove will remain shut down and the heat it produces will be poor. Speak to your Heating Engineer to see if installed as per the manufacturers instructions. The air wash control should be over to the right when first lighting and probably remain in the middle most of the time and if the wood is seasoned with a moisture content of less than 20% should remain clear.
I purchased this stove on the warm recommendation of the dealer, and it did at first seem to be satisfactory: large firebox, acceptable if basic appearance, good output, and easy to control (
almost as responsive as a gas fire.)However, within a few months of winter operation, both the paint finish had started to rub off (!) and the thermostat mechanism had come apart in my hands, jamming the air supply wide open - obvious safety implications there.Very difficult negotiations with the manufacturers then ensued: I found them to be utterly unhelpful and unwilling to accept the clear evidence of poor quality manufacture and design. I had not expected this from an established firm.I must add that their engineer, who was eventually sent to inspect the stove, wholly concurred in my view, supplied a very honest report on the faults.I was grateful to him and it enabled me to obtain a full refund, some 8 months after the faults became apparent.I subsequently bought the largest of the SAEY stoves, which at only a little extra cost has proved to be superbly and solidly made and excellent for heating the whole of my small house (and cooking) with much more economical use of wood. After a winter of hard work, it is as good as new, which I could not say for its predecessor.
Stove expert replied:
A difficult review as many customers are very satisfied with their TF90B's, it is a shame that legal action was required to rectify this.
Our TF90B was installed into our new build house Dec 2007. Having had an Aarrow stove (not boiler) previously I was confident it would be a sound investment. Sadly I was wrong. The stove has
been serving our 5 bed 3 bathroom house sufficiently well since installation, with hot water and heating. The only issue we have had is the glass in the door has 'crazed' which Aarrow replaced f.o.c. THEN, my wife noticed the firebox was a bit damp on one side when laying the fire, upon further investigation it seems that the boiler has failed, probably at a seam, but annoyingly on the sidewall front area behind where the airwash is welded in! Arghhh! I spoke to the manufacturer who suggested a mobile welder address the problem or a new stove! My confidence is shattered with Aarrow, the stove has probably saved us its purchase price in the the 4 winters we have had it, but the hassle of removing it, maybe trying to get it repaired, has certainly put me off buying another from them. It seems a shame to scrap it as the stove still looks like new and you seem to be able to buy all the spares to keep it going. Shame the boiler hasn't lasted :-(
Stove expert replied:
If you do not get repaired this should is not be used as a room heater in the future, a directive from the H & S Executive.
We chose this stove as it is the only domestic stove we found with a substantial boiler output. It is linked to our central heating, underfloor heating and hot water via a Dunsley Baker neutraliser
. This allows heat from 2 seperate sources to be connected without inducing any crossflow through the system. It also means we can start the central heating running on the oil boiler bfore we wake up, then stoke up the stove when get up, which can then maintain the heat in the system.We tried to get all the radiators going from cold just using the stove, but it took about 4 hours to heat up so we don't bother trying that anymore.It is worth mentioning that if you are trying to run the entire heating system from the stove then you will consume a lot of wood! We have found that just keeping the underfloor heating and water hot will consume about a barrow load of wood per day, but double that if trying to keep rads hot as well.The stove is fairly easy to keep in overnight using a large log; the key is to let fire die right back to a small bed of embers before loading the banking log on.My only gripe is that the secondary air does not have a sufficient amount of pre-heating,(compared to for example a Clearview)this means it is difficult to clear any soot off glass once established, and more importantly reduces efficiency of the burn. I had wanted to install a Clearview after seeing it in operation in four of my friend's houses, but their boiler output is puny.Overall, it has been a successful installation. It would just be nice if Aarrow had put a bit more effort into improving the secondary air pre-heating.I am planning to improvise some ducting to utilise hot air around the flue, and hopefully channel it to front of stove where the intake is. I'll let you know...You can see my stove in action on youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M6SRQjQGJUo&list=UUDTMRQebeJuYuIaKj4oFkhg&index=2&feature=plcp
Stove expert replied:
This may be a large stove with a big appetite but to get the output it needs the large amount of fuel so not surprising!!
Overall the TF90 works successfully; ours has been heating a 500 litre thermal store for 3 months (running DHW, 8 upstairs rads and UFH downstairs). During that time (Jan/Feb/Mar 2012), although
it's not been a severe winter in the south west, it has been chilly. However the oil boiler hasn't been switched on once. Depending on the weather, one to two good fires a day is sufficient to keep the house warm (maybe one of those will be allowed to burn for a good few hours during the day to provide a background heat at the centre of the house too). On very cold days, an almost continual burn was needed. I've past experience of a few other stoves, but not to heat an entire house; this beast seems altogether more utilitarian: designed to actually run one's heating, rather than heating a couple of rooms and looking pretty (that's not to say I dislike it's looks at all). I’ve used one other stove to drive rads; it was at a friend’s home and worked just about OK, but was possibly undersized or, just as likely, the logs were poor quality and not sufficiently seasoned. Anyway, the TF90 has a MASSIVE firebox, both in initial capacity and also appetite, however it's heating a largish house, so that's to be expected. It can heat up our entire thermal store from cold to 70+ degrees C in a matter of 4 hours (I think that's accurate). For comparison (I know I'd have found it useful when choosing), we're a single skin house with reasonable interior insulation. We're not heavy hot water users and also try not to maintain the house at too warm a temperature (16/17 degrees upstairs 18/19 downstairs with the exception of individual rooms which are sometimes warmer if required (eg often 23 in the room the tf90 runs in). Other internal doors are shut doors to leave the room colder, if it's presently not in use. It's not a particularly cold county we live in, so we don't need to burn as much as we would in, for example, the middle of the country - which gets harsher frosts. However can still get through a couple of wheelbarrows of seasoned wood on a cool day. Anthracite left to burn overnight invariably leaves hot embers for the morning, even though the controls are left normal levels rather than slumbered... (although tends also to fog the glass badly). Slumbering isn’t that necessary with a thermal store, because getting the store hot gradually heats the house once the fire’s out.. other than to make it easier to relight a fire in cold weather. The air wash works OK, as long as the fire's hot - not as well as, say the Dru in another room (rarely ever used other than for isolated room comfort, because the TF90’s sufficient to heat the entire house). Seems to burn quite efficiently (wood is nice and dry): making relatively little ash for the huge amount of wood fed into it. It certainly seems more efficient on anthracite (maybe with house coal mix for a nice flame effect). Problems?- I needed to adjust the system angle me mechanism on the ash pan door because it got stuck swivelled the wrong way (I'd guess poor manufacture control). - Thermostat knob wasn't supplied and I can't bear to buy one at £15 delivered (thermostat / primary air control is usually left at max)- I'd like another ash pan but £80? Come on!- (specific to my installation) the thermal store isn’t elevated enough above stove so, whilst the thermo syphoning works well to heat the store, it tends to reverse thermo syphon once the fire’s cooled down – making the fire act as a radiator to equalise water temp – slowly draining the store of heat (must fix that – but can’t output can’t be impeded due to safety – and regs).- Occasionally, mainly when starting, need to crack the Ash pan door Handle open a little in order to provide more airflow- Riddle works OK, but the wood setting has larger gaps than expected, compared to other stoves.- one side burns less vigorously than the other – I guess it’s likely due to the cooling effect of the cooler water in that part of the boiler jacket. I suspect that, if the pipes were connected at opposite corners, for a reversed cross flow, the opposite side may be less vigorous instead.- I’m worried about reports of reduced longevity here: people having problems with them rusting through.. something to be avoided at all costs given 500 litres of hot water on the floor (any tips anyone)? In summary, it’s pricy, but I don't believe there's anything on the market to rival the output / capacity. So far it appears fit for purpose; as I write, in late March, the thermal store’s still quite hot from last night, there were plenty of hot anthracite embers this morning and I threw a few logs in, because I knew it would start easily and I could therefore easily top up what was lost this morning from the rads and UFH. We’ll probably just relight the fire in the early evening for a good hot burn for a few hours tonight and this will get the TS hot again, through its entire 500l.
Stove expert replied:
Large free-standing boiler with integral thermostat which works well. Big boiler for larger properties and very few options available.
